Donny heard the faint sound of the front
door opening over Tony's singing and grabbed Marcus by the arm, whisking him to
the back door.

"Sorry Marcus," Donny whispered.
"We're not supposed to have visitors in the
house when dad's not home and I think I just heard him come in."

Donny and Marcus slipped out the back
door leaving Tony singing karaoke all by himself.
They jogged around to the small corridor on
the side of the house. Donny stopped
Marcus just before they got to the gate and pulled him into a quick goodbye
kiss.

"Marcus," Donny said looking him
straight in the eyes. "I... I love you!"

Donny panicked for a moment as the sound
of his own words escaping his mouth startled even himself.

"I love you too Donny," Marcus admitted
rather casually. "I have since I first
laid eyes on you at the beginning of the school year.
I'm so glad we finally got together."

"I want you Marcus," Donny confessed.

"You mean... right here, right now?"
Marcus said, looking up and down the small cramped corridor.
"You're starting to get kinky already!"

"No, I mean, I want you... all to myself,"
Donny explained. "I know now that you
live with Jonah and you have, I mean you've
had feelings for him." Then Donny's
voice turned aggressive. "I'm gonna tell
ya right now, I'm gonna fight for you!"

"You don't have to fight for me, I'm
already yours."

"All right then...,"
Donny said, backing down. "No
problem. Of course you realize, I'm
gonna know if your being faithful to me every time I kiss you.
You won't be able to hide it from me, now
that I'm a genuine spermpire."

"You're right... just don't confuse
spermpire feeding lust with love. The
raw emotions are very similar."

"Oh, don't worry, I'll know the
difference," Donny assured him.
"Because, I'm gonna be with you from now on!" Donny grinned.
"Call me when you get home to that cabin of
yours. I have a bunch more spermpire
questions to ask you."

"Sure, I'll do that. We've still got a
lot more to cover."

They kissed one more time and then Donny
shooed Marcus out the gate and on his way.
Then Donny went back into the house just as Tony was finishing his
Crocodile Rock-out, falling to his knees and pretending to be worshiped by a
stadium full of adoring fans.

Donny and Tony's dad, who was silently
standing in the hallway, suddenly walked into the room.
He started reaching out his arms towards Tony
as if an army of groupies were desperately reaching out to steal a glancing
touch. He began howling girly cheers in
a scream-like falsetto. Then he flailed
his head and arms, simulating the antics of a crazed crowd.
Next, he started jumping up and down,
feigning the hysteria of a swarm of young girls, swooning and falling to the
floor while wetting their panties over him.
He was completely enjoying himself as he made a total mockery of all
rock & roll fandom.

The boys hadn't seen their dad hovering
quietly there in the shadows and were momentarily stunned into utter silence as
they watched their dad behave in such an uncharacteristically animated fashion.

"Hey dad, we didn't see you there.
What's up?" Donny said, unmoved by his dad's
performance.

He got up off the floor and shook off
his bruised ego. Then he caught the
whiff of something foreign. He tried to
inconspicuously sniff the air as his keen olfactory senses kicked in.

"Who's been here today?" He suspiciously
asked.

"John Denver and Elton John," Donny answered.

Their dad got a strange look on his face
for a moment. Then he decided that what
he was detecting in the room must have been the lingering scent of Donny and
Tony's new basketball friends. The
problem was that this scent was much stronger and fresher than it should have
been and had some telltale signs of something troubling, but he let the matter
drop for the time being.

"Are you two up for some pasta at `Mama
Russo's' tonight?" their dad asked.

"Yeah!"
Donny enthusiastically exclaimed as he jumped into the air.

"Sounds like you're feeling better today
Donny," his dad observed.

"Yeah, much better," Donny answered but
with a little less exuberance as to avoid any undue attention.

"Maybe it was the basketball game you guys
played today," dad offered.

"It definitely was the game that did it
all right," Donny smugly said.

"Yeah, definitely the game, but it kinda
sucked
when it was over with," Tony added as he got up off his knees and stood by his
brother. Donny scowled at him but Tony
just busted up laughing.

"Well, I'm glad you two enjoyed
yourselves," dad said. "I'm feeling
pretty good myself. I just landed the
Wilcox account which means we won't need to sell the house anymore.
It's a five year contract which means we
won't have to worry about moving for a long time to come.
I'll make reservations for six o'clock,
so make sure you two are ready. I'm
going to take a nap, it was a brutal meeting.
I'll see you later."

Dad went to his room and shut the
door. Donny and Tony stood in stunned
silence.

"Watch what you say around dad, you
dope. Geez, I
can't believe you just said that," Donny scolded.

"That's okay, I'm sure it's nothing,"
Donny said, not to make Tony's confusion any worse.
"I think I'll go take a nap too.
We've worked pretty hard today too, you and
me. I'd really like it if you'd come
with me to the tree house and keep me company.
At least you don't have to worry about me attacking you for a
while. We're both safe from each other
right now. We can go up there if you
want and get naked and enjoy the cool outdoors while we rest.
If we pull in the rope and close the hatch,
we'll have all the privacy we need. If
dad comes to check on us, he'll have to call up to us and we won't get caught
off guard. How does that sound?"

"I'll race ya!" Tony said and ran out
the back door with Donny hot on his heels.
They both were kind of anxious just to get another look at each other's
growing bodies. They both popped boners
as they tried to beat each other to the tree house entrance.

In less than a minute, the two boys were
secure in the tree house. They pulled in
the rope, closed the hatch and propped open the windows to get a cross breeze
going. Then they stripped naked without
hesitation and got on their backs, side by side on the mattress, both sporting
uninhibited erections. They enjoyed
sneaking peeks at each other and grinning as they each allowed the other to
have unlimited examinations of themselves.
They both felt at peace being comfortably near each other until they
both fell into a blissful slumber.

About an hour later, Donny and Tony were
awakened by the muffled sound of Donny's cell phone playing the Addams Family
theme song from the pocket of Donny's pants that were lying in a pile along
with Tony's clothes on the tree house floor.

"I asked him to call me when he got to
the cabin," Donny said. "He should've
called me sooner. He probably just now
remembered. I'll get back to him after
dinner. Right now, I want to spend some
more quality time with my little brother, who's not all that little anymore."

Tony quickly covered his privates with
both hands and grinned at Donny.

"I can't help it!
It just happens." Tony laughed.

"No, I don't mean that," Donny
snickered. "I mean, you're no ordinary
fourteen year old boy. You're not all
wrapped up in yourself. What you offered
to do for me last night was... special.
I'm so proud of you and I'm happy for you too."

"Happy
for me?" Tony questioned.
"What do you mean?"

"I watched you at the cabin," Donny said
as he turned to face his little brother.
"You and Kirk hit it off right away.
You're in love!"

"Shut Up!
I am not!" Tony squealed.

"Kirk and Tony sittin'
in a tree... k-i-s-s-i-n-g," Donny teased as he
lyrically sang the taunting tune.

"Stop That!" Tony demanded.

"It's okay Tony, I'm only teasing ya,"
Donny said. "It's great to be in
love. I'm glad you found somebody too."

"Too?"
Tony questioned. "Are you in love with
Marcus?"

"Yeah, I think I am," Donny admitted.

"Cool," Tony said.

"You should've gotten Kirk's phone
number."

"I did, check it out." Tony said as he
lifted his dick and turned to show Donny where Kirk had written his phone
number on the side of his boy stick.

Donny laughed as he looked closer at his
brother's wilted pole.

"Tony, I hate to break it to ya but I
think he was just messing with you. That's not enough numbers."

"Yes it is. Look, you can see them all
when I've got a boner."

Tony stretched the skin out to show the
hidden numbers within the folds of his foreskin. They both laughed.

"Are you gonna call him?" Donny asked.

"Well, unless you're gonna lend me your
cell phone, I can't. I wanted some way
to be able to get together with him again.
I don't know what good having his cell phone number is without having a
cell phone of my own."

"We'll talk to dad tonight at
dinner. Since he landed that new job and
he's in such a good mood, we'll see if we can talk him into getting you one."

"Thanks Donny, you're the greatest
brother anyone could ever want."

"I know!"

"I should also mention, you're an
annoying brat too," Tony said.

"I know!"

Then they heard the backdoor close and
knew dad was coming outside to look for them.
They scrambled to get their clothes on just as dad was calling out for
them.

"Donny...!
Tony...! Are the two of you back
here?"

"We're up here dad," Donny said as he
poked his head out the tree house window.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, we'll be right down," Donny said.

The two opened the hatch and scurried
down the rope and into the house. Donny
stuck his head under a faucet and then briskly rubbed a towel over his
head. He brushed his hair into his usual
style and gave it a shot of super hold spray.
Tony popped his head in and said, "Come on already.
I'm hungry." Donny stuck his tongue out at
him and tossed the towel on the rack.

Donny rode shotgun beside dad and Tony
sat in the back in the usual pecking order as they drove to Mama Russo's.
Donny was bouncing around between radio
stations, not letting any single song finish before searching for something
different. Their dad kept glancing at
both of them like he was about to say something but then didn't.
Finally, their dad reached over and punched
the power button.

"I want to talk with you two a little."
Dad said.

"Okay," the two boys said in unison.

"Well.
Good."

The boys stared in anticipation of what
their dad had to say as he stared forward and swallowed hard a few times.

"So, what is it?" Donny finally asked
impatiently.

"Well I guess I just wanted to say that
I love you boys. I know it's been hard
on you without a mother and all and I'm just real proud of you."

"Yeah, well we love you too, Dad.
Is that it?
Can I play the radio now?" Donny asked.

"No.
No, that's not really it. What I
wanted to say was, well, you guys are getting older now.
I've noticed that the two of you are changing
if you know what I mean."

"Umm,
not really.
What do you mean?" Tony asked.

"Well your bodies are changing, and you
are maturing. I know I should have
talked to Donny a while ago but I put it off and now I've noticed my little
Tony is starting to change as well, and I just think I need to talk to both of
you about some things."

After a pause, Donny said with a little
grin, "So, talk already."

"Okay, here goes.
So I'm not exactly sure what you boys already
know. I'm sure you've heard some things
from friends and stuff. But as boys
grow, they reach a point in life when they go from being just boys to starting
the process to become men. There are a
lot of mysterious things about the human body and sometimes, even more
mysterious things for some people who might have... well... special situations, and
for those people, there isn't any information for them.
You know what I mean?"

Donny looked back at Tony who shrugged
and Donny looked over at his father and said, "No.
I have no idea what you mean.
What are you talking about?
Is this supposed to be our sex talk?"

"Yes.
Well partially. I mean there's
more to it than just sex, but of course, sex is a big part of what I'm talking
about. It's just that there's more to it
than just sex and I don't want to say more than is appropriate for you guys and
make you more curious about things that can wait.
I just think we need to chat about some
things that may be going on with you two especially in the way of changes you
might be experiencing. So I guess you
guys know all about the sex part?"

"Not really," Tony said.
"What about it?"

Of course, he really did know all about
it but he thought it would be fun to see his dad squirm a bit while he tried to
explain it.

"Oh.
Well let's see. Umm, you know
that you're a boy of course and you know how your body is different from a
girl's body of course."

"You mean because we have a penis and
girls don't and our tits don't grow big and make milk like theirs do?" Tony
casually answered.

"Well, yes.
That's right.
Girls need the milk to feed their babies.
We don't have babies so we don't need the milk."

"Yeah, I know that.
So, what else?"

"Well, as you get older like the two of
you, your bodies start making something called sperm.
These sperm help men to create babies when
they come in contact with a woman's egg.
Do you know about that?"

"Geez, of
course dad," Donny said as he rolled his eyes.

"Kind of," Tony said.
"Like, I know you have lots of those little
white sperm fishes swimming around in your balls and they squirt out when you
rub your penis, but I don't get how that makes a baby inside a girl."

This time, Tony was being honest. He
never really understood that part of the process.
Donny smiled to himself as his dad gripped
the steering wheel harder and forged on, keeping his eyes fixated ahead.

"Okay, well, basically... when a man and a
woman love each other and get married after
finishing school and finding jobs so they can afford to pay for a baby and
provide a stable home for it, well then they express their love to each other
by coming together and the man's sperm unites with the woman's egg and that's
how the process of making a baby begins by growing inside a woman's uterus
until it is born. That's how you guys
were made. Get it?"

"No." Tony said with a look of
confusion.

Donny scoffed, "Geez
Dad, you suck at this. Tony... it's like
this. We're boys and we've got dicks and
balls. Girls have slits called vaginas
that have like a tunnel up inside of them where we slide our dicks in.
That tunnel leads to this
bag thingy called a uterus. Our
balls make sperm and girls have eggs up inside them.
Once a month, a girl shoots an egg out into
that place dad called a uterus. Then a man and a woman have sex together with
the girl laying on her back and the boy laying on top of her and the boy sticking
his dick up inside the girl's vagina hole and pumping it in and out of her like
this." Donny made a bird finger with his right hand and slipped it in and out
of his other fist to simulate fucking.
"That causes the good feeling you get like when you jack off and causes
your sperm to shoot out your dick into her vagina tube.
The sperms swim up to the uterus and if they
find the egg, they attach to it and that makes a baby start growing in
there. It's called conception."

"Ohhh! I get it now I guess," Tony said.
"Sammy said that girl's vaginas smell like
rotten fish. That's gross.
When you do it, does it make your dick smell
like rotten fish? Is that what you did
to mom?" Tony asked wrinkling his nose.

"Well, that was sort of a crass
explanation of the process but that about covers it.
And yes, I did that with your mom.
If a woman practices good hygiene, it doesn't
smell all that bad. It's not gross, it's
a beautiful experience but like I said, you should wait until you're old enough
and prepared to have a child of your own.
A child is a big responsibility."

"So apparently, it sounds like you've
already learned the joy of masturbation." Their dad clarified, seeing Tony's
wrinkled brow, "Masturbation is the proper word for rubbing your penis until
the good feeling happens and the sperm squirts out, which you know all about,
right?"

Tony smiled. "Maybe."

Tony knew what masturbation meant, he
was just surprised his dad would talk about it.
When their dad turned to look at Donny, Donny smirked and said, "Really
dad? You have to wonder that?"

"No, I guess not.
So if I could ask, how did you learn about
it?" their dad asked.

"From Chris on a sleepover," answered
Tony.

"Just kind of figured it out on my own,"
Donny said. "How did you learn dad?" Donny said, catching his dad off guard.

"Well, it was a long time ago, but I
definitely still remember it. My cousin,
Thomas, taught me when I went to visit his family on their farm one summer."

"How old were you?" Donny asked with
great interest.

"I was twelve and he was thirteen.
It was exciting and kind of scary doing it
with him. We were out in the barn and he
took me into one of the stables and showed me how long his horse's penis
was. I was amazed by it and then he
asked me if I ever pulled on mine. I had
no idea about it and so he took me up in the hay loft and we pulled down our
pants and he taught me how to get the good feeling.
I couldn't even squirt anything yet, but he
did and I was amazed by it. I was a late
bloomer like Tony seems to be. Thomas
taught me a few other things that summer.
I guess it's normal for boys to have curiosity and want to try doing
things together. It sounds like Tony did
it with Chris, and I'm wondering about you and this new guy who's been hanging
around the house lately, Marcus, isn't that his name?
Have the two of you been experimenting,
Donny?"

Donny's know it all attitude
shifted. He looked at his dad and his
first instinct was to lie, but he wasn't naturally good at it.
His father's gaze seemed to pierce right
through him.

"A little," Donny eked out.

"I thought so.
There's something about him that just didn't
smell right," dad said drawing his finger across the bottom of his nose.

"What do you mean by that?
He doesn't smell." Donny looked offended and
was very defensive.

"Oh, oh, I didn't mean he actually
smelled. No, it's just a figure of
speech. But I did get the feeling that
you two were doing things together. I'm
sure he's a nice enough boy, but I'd like to meet him
and his family sometime if you two are going to be hanging out together now."

Donny didn't respond to that.
How could he?
Who was he going to bring over to dinner, Malik and Jonah?
Maybe get the big cheese, that Vladimir
guy Marcus talked about? In hopes of
sliding by that comment, Donny asked, "Like what else did your cousin Thomas
teach you?"

"I hesitate to talk about that part, but
I need to warn you about some things.
Doing sex stuff with others can be fun and exciting, but it has some
dangers as well. Ah, here we are at Mama
Russo's. We'll finish this discussion later.
Let's go eat. Who's hungry?"

"Me," both boys cried out as they unbuckled
their seat belts and clambered out of the car.

A pleasant, dark haired woman met them
inside the door and asked them if they wanted a table or a booth.

"We'd like that corner booth if we could
have it," their father requested.

Once they were seated and they ordered
their raspberry lemonades, their dad started back into his little talk.

"So like I started to say in the car,
playing around with friends can be fun and exciting but there are some dangers
I need to warn you about. I'd like you
to not do anything with girls until you're much older.
There are risks with that too."

Tony looked nervously at their father,
Donny looked a bit suspiciously at him.

"If you're talking about STDs, Mr.
Matthews in our health class told us all about that," Donny said.
"You don't need to worry about me and girls
right now. I'm not in a hurry to mess
with them. Besides, none of them pay any
attention to me anyway."

"I am talking about STDs and... well... other
things as well, life changing things.
Some of the diseases you can get from being sexually active with
anybody, and can last a lifetime and seriously impact your life.
I hesitate to talk about this but I guess in
today's world and especially in our community, I need to.
Something that I learned about from my cousin
Thomas was..."

Their father peered out of the booth to
make sure no one was in earshot. "Sucking!
It is something that some boys do and I'm not
saying you boys have, or are, or even would want to do that, but it isn't safe
to do anymore, especially around here.
You never know who might have an infection of some sort.
You can get all kinds of bad things from
doing it. There's HIV of course, but that's
less likely. There are things like HPV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis that all can be
transmitted this way. There is something
else you can get that really messes up your life, so if you're ever asked by
anyone to try it, please just say no. If
you want to play around with others, just stick to touching with your hands.
Got it?"

Donny and Tony glanced at each other
then quickly looked away.

"I got it," Donny said quietly.

"Yeah.
I think I understand too," Tony added equally as softly.

"Can we talk about something else now?"
Donny pleaded.

Tony didn't want to say he `got it'
because he hadn't got it, but he knew Donny had gotten it for real and he
wondered if his dad even knew how bad it could be.
Tony thought Donny would be happy to trade
being a spermpire for the worst of the STDs.

"Dad," Tony wondered.
"What does STDs stand for exactly?"

"It stands for `Sexually Transmitted
Diseases'. When I was young, they called
it VD which stands for `Venereal Disease', but basically it means any diseases
you can get from doing sex stuff with others, girls or boys."

"Oh," Tony acknowledged.
"Is it worse to do things with girls or is it
wrong to do things with boys? Like is it
bad to be gay? Guys at school make fun of
some boys that they say are gay."

"No," dad replied.
"It's not bad to be gay.
Some boys are naturally that way.
It's just how they are made and it's not a
bad thing. It is dangerous to be out
messing around with lots of different people of either sex because you put
yourself at risk of getting some of these diseases.
It's better to just hold off and enjoy your
own body on your own or just rub together if you really want to mess around
with others. You must never ever stick
your penis inside another person's body or let another person stick their penis
inside any part of your body without using a condom.
I'd prefer you just didn't do it at all, but
if you're ever tempted to, use a condom!
Do both of you know what a condom is?"

"Yes," Tony said.

"Of course," Donny stated.
"Geez,
dad."

"Okay, good.
Listen, the last thing I'm gonna say about
this is that if either of you ever have any questions of any kind, trust me
enough to ask. I will never get upset
with you if you ever need to talk about anything.
I mean that."

The conversation ended when their food
arrived. They switched to talking about
the big job their father landed and how they could both earn some money on
weekends by helping out on it. Donny
worried about that cutting into his spermpire hunting time.
He pushed the thought out of his head quickly
though. Their father suggested that
after the first big payday on the job, they could take a long overdue vacation
and go to Disneyland
and Sea World. Both boys perked up at
that idea.

The boys both had their usual, spaghetti
and meatballs. Their dad had his usual
rigatoni in Alfredo sauce with mushrooms.
Donny was on his third piece of garlic cheese toast when Tony took a
breath to ask a question.

"Hey Dad, I want to ask you something
about what we were talking about before.
How does a boner work and why do we get them?
Like, I felt it when it's soft and there's no
bone in it. Do the bones grow and then
disappear or something?"

Donny rolled his eyes and grinned as
their dad speared a piece of his rigatoni and held it up dangling from his
fork.

"Well Tony, see this noodle?
It's soft and hangs down.
But if I filled it up with something, it
would get more rigid." He turned the
fork over and the natural bend of the noodle made it arc upward.
"When you have sexy thoughts, your body
causes blood to flow into your little noodle.
When the blood fills up into it, a sort of a flap closes and won't let
the blood back out." He took a mushroom
piece and stuffed it into the bottom hole of his rigatoni.
So there really isn't any bone in your
boner. That's just a slang term that
people made up to describe it. It's
really called an erection. After you've
reached your climax and your sexy thoughts go away, then the flap opens back up
and lets the blood flow back out and the erection goes down."
He pinched the mushroom back out and rotated
the fork back over so the noodle hung back down again.
"Get it?"

"Oh. Wow. That's cool. Thanks," Tony
said. He reached down into his crotch and
gave a little adjusting tug.

"Testing it out, are you?" Donny asked
just before popping the last meatball into his mouth.

"Shut up, dork." Tony sucked his last
spaghetti noodle in then licked his lips.

"Hey dad, I gotta hit the head, I'll be
right back," Donny said.

"Me too," Tony added and they both left
the table together.

"It's nice to see you two becoming so
inseparable," their dad said as his sons disappeared around the corner.

They entered the restroom and found it
empty. Donny and Tony stepped up to the
two urinals side by side. They unzipped
their pants and pulled out their hoses and proceeded to empty their bladders.

"Oh my god, what's gotten into dad
today?" Tony asked.

"I don't know.
I hope he's finished.
It's like he knows something.
It's weird," Donny said.
"And another thing, my cell has been
vibrating in my pocket like every five minutes since we got into the car
together. I better find out what's going
on."

They both finished their urination and
shook off the excess drops and then put their equipment back into their
pants. Donny pulled his cell phone out
of his pocket and checked the caller I.D. record.

"Five calls from Marcus," Donny said out
loud. "I wonder what the big emergency
is."

"Only one way to find out," Tony said.

"You're right," Donny said and without
listening to any of the voicemail messages Marcus had left, he hit the return
dial button to call Marcus back. Marcus
answered the call on the very first ring.

"It's about time, where have you been?"
Marcus nervously said.

"We're at Mama Russo's Italian
Restaurant," Donny said. "Dad took us
here to celebrate. He landed some big
contract he'd been working on."

"Forget about all that," Marcus
said. "Are you ready to go?"

"Ready
to go?Ready to go where?" Donny asked.

"Haven't you listened to any of my
messages?" Marcus growled.

"No, I've been kinda busy."

"Shit Donny, all hell is breaking loose here."

"What are you talking about?"

"Malik has ordered a community wide
evacuation," Marcus began. "It happened
so fast that I heard a rumor that Malik didn't even wait for the approval of
the Grand Master."

"The
Grand Master?" Donny repeated.

"Yeah, that's the highest Spermpire
authority there is. His name's Vladimir.
I've mentioned him to you before."

"How can Malik do that without
permission?"

"Apparently, one of the feeding drones
that escaped last night was so heavily drugged that when he got home, his
parents immediately took him to the hospital and once they got a coherent story
out of him, the police started an investigation.
Some of our guys have already been questioned
and I think Malik panicked."

"I heard that," Marcus said to
Donny. "As much as I love Tony, he can't
come with us, he's not a spermpire."

"I'm not going anywhere without Tony,"
Donny insisted. "I'm not leaving him
behind."

Tony stood frozen alongside his brother,
listening intently to every word that was said.
A stream of tears started to roll down his cheeks as Donny's
conversation with Marcus continued.

"Malik has ordered us to leave tonight,"
Marcus said, relaying the information he had gathered so far.
"We're to meet at MangelsonPark
at ten o'clock
tonight."

"Tonight?"
Donny exclaimed. "No
way!"

"I know it's all of a sudden but it's
the same for everybody," Marcus explained.
"Once everyone is accounted for, we'll all be leaving together.
They won't allow stragglers to stay behind
who could identify the others. I have to
go and that means you have to go."

"All right, we'll be there," Donny said.

"You have to come alone Donny," Marcus
warned. "Malik is dangerous and
unpredictable. If you bring Tony with
you, there's no telling what he'll do. I
love you and Tony both and I don't want to see anything bad happen to either of
you."

"Look, dad's waiting for us back at the
table," Donny said. "I'll call you when
I get home, okay?"

"Sure, but remember, we only have about
three hours," Marcus reminded.

Donny and Marcus ended their
conversation and the boys returned to their table visibly shaken.

"Are you two okay?" dad asked sounding
alarmed. "Tony..., you look like you've
been crying and Donny..., you look as pale as a ghost."

"We're okay dad," Donny said thinking
fast on his feet. "There was a nasty
smell in there. I wouldn't go in there
if I were you."

"Okay, I hope it wasn't so bad that you
lost your appetite for one of Mama Russo's famous desserts," dad said as he
picked up one of the dessert menus off the table.
"So..., what sounds good?"

Donny and Tony just looked at each other
in despair. They had lost their appetite
all right, but they tried to put on a brave face anyway.
This was dad's moment of glory and they did
what they could to stay cheerful even though the inner turmoil over the latest
developments cast a cold shadow over the festivities.

"Sure.
I'll have a Cannoli," Donny said.

"Me too," Tony added.

"That's a great idea," dad said and
ordered three.

When they arrived at the table, everyone
dove in. They all picked up their
Cannoli, gingerly with both hands. They
picked a side to begin on, and started licking and sucking the filling from the
tubular confection, spreading the white creamy substance all over their
lips. Dad suddenly stopped and stared at
Donny and Tony. Even though he was
guilty himself, he felt the need to scold the boys for their bad table
manners. Dad's scowl got Donny and
Tony's attention and they stopped in their tracks.
Everyone looked at everybody else for a
moment as time crawled to a stop. Then
Donny let out an unintentional burp and all three of them broke into spontaneous
laughter.

"Well, if we can't suck the real
thing...," Tony started to say without thinking.

"Oh My God Tony," Donny exclaimed.
"What did you just say?"

Tony just shrugged his shoulders and
said, "Well it's true isn't it?"

"That's not the point," Donny said.

"Now–now Donny, Tony's got a point,"
dad said, coming to Tony's defense.
"Besides, this is much sweeter than the real thing anyway, trust me, I
know!"

"Oh My God Dad," Donny exclaimed again.

Donny and Tony discovered their dicks
were growing again at the thought of their dad, (who had just preached the ills
of sucking cocks) had just confirmed that he had personal knowledge of what a
real cock tastes like.

They each put their Cannoli back on the
plate and continued to eat their dessert with a fork and knife.

The ride home was quiet.
Their dad just thought that his son's were
content, having eaten their limit of their favorite cuisine.
The fact was that Donny and Tony were
silently stressing about what they were going to do about the evacuation.